Man charged with setting fire to woman's apartment in Bel Air

Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun

Deputy state fire marshals on Sunday arrested a Joppa man who they believe set two small fires in a woman's apartment after getting into an argument with her.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal said Ryan Lawrence Spann, 28, argued with a woman living at 209 Foxhall Drive, an apartment complex in Bel Air, before the woman left. Deputies said Spann then set two fires in the apartment with "ordinary household items," which the woman discovered when she returned home about 1 a.m. Sunday to smoke alarms sounding.

About 40 firefighters responded, but the fires had already gone out of their own accord and firefighters quickly declared the situation under control. Deputies estimated the damage to the apartment and its contents to be at least $10,000.

Spann was charged with first- and second-degree arson and on Sunday evening was being held at the Harford County Detention Center awaiting a bond review hearing. No attorney was listed for him in available court records.